Coke oven gas may be catalytically reformed to produce the hydrogen which is essential to reduction of the iron ore. Coke oven gas typically contains appreciable quantities of hydrogen sulfide, organo-sulfur compounds such as thiophene, tetrahydrothiophene, thionin, and thioxanthene and inorganic carbon-sulfur compounds such as carbon disulfide and carbonyl sulfide.
It has been found that when the sulfur content of the coke oven gas is greater than about 7 parts per million by volume sulfur expressed as hydrogen sulfide, the sulfur poisons the catalyst during the reforming operation. This necessitates frequent regeneration or replacement of the catalyst.
Therefore, there is a need for a process for reducing the sulfur content of coke oven gas to levels tolerable by the reforming operation as well as hydrogen consuming steel making operations. Equivalent problems exist in other hydrogen consuming processes where the presence of sulfur compounds cannot be tolerated.